A Case For The Chase

11/25/2015

Jeremiah Thalheimer

Like most of you reading this article, I spent this past Sunday glued to my TV watching Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, and Martin Truex, Jr. battle for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. No sooner did the confetti begin to fly at Homestead than the debate began to rage as to whether Kyle deserved his championship and to the merits of NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup. Even though I know this will not be a popular opinion on this site, I believe that The Chase is one of the best things NASCAR has done in a long time.

First of all, gone are the days when a driver could build a huge points lead and then coast over the last ten races. Now, a driver has to get up on the wheel and race more aggressively in order to win a championship. Also, The Chase in its current format rightfully places a bigger emphasis on winning. Think back to the Coca-Cola 600. When debating whether or not to try and stretch fuel mileage in order to go for a win, Greg Ives asked Dale Jr. if he gave a crap about points to which Dale said no. With one win and a spot in The Chase assured, Dale and his team could afford to take risks that would not be as beneficial under the Latford format. For years, fans said they wanted NASCAR to make winning count for more. Well, the only way to truly make winning count for more is to make it more rewarding to go for wins than to points race, and that's what this format does.

Also, this format has not completely done away with consistency. Remember, out of the Championship Four, Jeff Gordon was the only one to get into The Chase via points. During the Eliminator Round, Gordon raced his way into the Championship Four with his win at Martinsville while Busch, Harvick, and Truex all got in by scoring the most points and being consistent.

At the end of every season, we tend to see comparisons as to how the championship would have played out under the old format and are frequently told that if it were not for The Chase, Jeff Gordon would have seven championships. However, this is a pointless argument. Drivers (including Jeff himself) have all stated that they race differently according to the format, so we can't say with certainty how the championship would have played out any other way.

One argument that we also frequently hear is that The Chase isn't a "fair" way to determine a champion. Well, there is no way to determine a champion - in NASCAR or any other sport - that is 100% fair. Let's take a look at pro football. A team can have a great season, but then have one off day in the playoffs and miss out on a championship. Part of being a great champion is the ability to perform in the clutch, and that is what The Chase requires.

Now, let's examine some of the other common arguments against The Chase while looking back at the greatest race of all time, the 1992 Hooters 500. First of all, we are told that The Chase doesn't reward the driver who was best all season but instead allows a driver to catch a hot streak at the right time and ride that streak all the way to a championship. In 1992, the best driver over the whole season was actually Bill Elliott even though Alan Kulwicki was crowned champion. As late as September, Bill had a 154 point lead over his rivals before he began to falter. Meanwhile, Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki both caught hot streaks and rode these streaks to take the top two points positions leading into the finale at Atlanta. Now, we also here that a large weakness with this format is the fact the a driver can lose the championship through no fault of his own during the winner-take-all finale at Homestead. Well, this sort of misfortune also befell Davey Allison at Atlanta in 1992. Going into the finale, Davey was leading the points and only needed to finish 6th or better to clinch the championship. However, with 74 laps to go, he was caught up in a crash with Ernie Irvan and knocked out of contention and ultimately allowing Alan Kulwicki to capture the championship. Now, I know that many of you are going to argue with me that the beauty of that particular day is that all the events unfolded naturally without a Chase, and that is a point I'm willing to concede, but the larger point I'm trying to make here is that these sort of things have always been and always will be a part of racing.

I think one of the problems with The Chase is the fact that NASCAR had to tweak the format so many times until settling on the current one. Honestly, I think that if they had just gone to this format initially, people would have embraced it by now. However, since the format has been changed so many times, people aren't sure what to make of this format or if it will last. However, I certainly hope this format sticks around for a long, long time. It's made both the season and the championship compelling, and for that we should all be thankful.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Race Fans Forever are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of Race Fans Forever. Race Fans Forever is not affiliated with NASCAR or any other motorsports sanctioning body in any form..